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This issue discusses the many lessons you can learn from peers, from clients, from surveys and the experience of marketing experts - even what not to do. But the main lesson is that a little learning can go a long way for business development results.

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Featured Articles

Prepare for better business development with the talking points from this month's featured articles – in brief.

At this time of year, most attorneys set ambitious goals and identify new marketing thrusts to realize these goals. With some frank and tough talk, Michael Cummings,advises you to get more successful by resolving what to STOP doing, and so change the mindset and habits that limit you.

Advertising and PR agencies often try to distinguish themselves by how they guide you to successful marketing activities. Their fancy versions of what Andy Havens calls the “creative brief” will work, and they will cost you. Or you can apply the basic version he gives here and get 80% of the results for about 5% of the expense.

Larry Bodine, Esq. underscores three key ways to get more out of your marketing, especially with your client base, building on important lessons learned from his survey of marketing leaders: the power of measuring success and what to measure; the least and most effective marketing methods; and the most critical roles for both marketing leaders and individual lawyers.

A recent LexisNexis poll found a huge gap in thinking between private-practice and in-house counsel about billing rates and perceived value. In response to client pressures, you could punt, says Darryl Cross, and just cut rates. Or you could seize the opportunity to better the relationship through a simple awkward conversation addressing these seven key questions.

What makes the difference between those lawyers who can bring in business and those who don’t? In a recent survey, Larry Bodine, Esq. found that lawyers feel poorly prepared for the personal marketing they must do. But the ones who make the effort to build their skills prove much more successful...and here are some of the tactics they like most.

There is a lot of fear and confusion among lawyers about marketing because learning what to do comes late in most careers. While you’re assessing where your business building stands in this new year, you can boost your success by adopting the three basic skills of relationship building underscored by Thom Singer.